Insurance Industry's Final Ad Blitz: We "do not deserve to be vilified for political purposes."

[jefferson_dem]

Right on time. Perfect.

Insurance Industry's Final Ad Blitz: Don't Blame Us For Your High Costs
First Posted: 03- 9-10 09:16 AM | Updated: 03- 9-10 10:09 AM

As President Obama makes his final push to get health care reform through Congress, he is "seizing on a report showing that market concentration for health insurance is so monopolized that insurance companies are willing to raise prices and lose customers in an effort to help their bottom line," HuffPost's Sam Stein reported.

The insurance industry is not taking this lying down. The Associated Press reports:

Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans, said insurance industry workers "do not deserve to be vilified for political purposes. ... For every dollar spent on health care in America, less than one penny goes toward health plan profits. The focus needs to be on the other 99 cents." AHIP plans to spend more than $1 million to run television ads on cable stations nationwide beginning in the next few days to push back on the attacks on insurers.

Obama has long identified the insurance industry as an obstacle to changes along the lines he seeks, but the administration's actions and rhetoric seem to have escalated in recent days.

The president's proposal would give the government the right to limit excessive premium increases - a provision included after one firm announced a 39 percent increase in the price of individual policies sold in California. Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, convened a White House meeting with insurance executives last week, and followed up with a letter released in advance of Obama's speech.

It asks companies to "post on your Web sites the justification for any individual or small group rate increases you have implemented or proposed in 2010."

Talking Points Memo notes that the new AHIP campaign "comes as the group kicks off a two-day 'policy conference' in downtown D.C."

<SNIP>

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/09/insurance-industrys-final_n_491369.html

More of this please! Boner is out defending the industry - http://twitter.com/GOPLeader/statuses/10224092836

[KingFlorez]

1. Oh, how terrible that they are being unfairly persecuted

Give me a break. They have a lot of nerve acting like they are the victim here.

[MUAD_DIB]

4. Have the insurance Cos ever had an off quater?

As far as I know they have had record profits every quarter.

They're not hurting. They should stop with the whining.


Since they are not able to reform themselves they have nothing to complain about...unless that is if avarice is defensible.

[tularetom]

2. But they do deserve to be vilified for being liars and thieves

And helping to destroy the middle class in America.

[The Magistrate]

12. Exactly, Sir, And If That Serves Some Political Purpose, Well....

[BeyondGeography]

3. 25%-30% overheads for payment processing mostly healthy people

and a regulatory-free environment that produces heads-they-win, tails-we-lose outcomes.

Of course they're upset.

:cry:

[ShortnFiery]

5. Hell, the Insurance Cartel is salivating over the passage of this shitty HRC bill in The House.

We're being PUNKED again.

1) Iraq War Resolution
2) Bankster Bail-out

Third time's a charm? :puke:

[kentuck]

6. Screw those leeches...

They are making over $200 billion a year on sick people. They are the scum of the earth. There should be no profit motive involved in taking care of people that are ill.

[blueworld]

7. Of course profits are only recognized after expenses

like huge salaries, lobbying firms, advertising, executive retreats, stock options, Lear jets...by the time they suck the money out of premiums and then are forced to pay for some actual health care, of course there's only pennies left.

And do they mention that while they require their policy holders to purchase prescriptions via mail order to "save money" they also own the mail-order pharmacies? Wellpoint & Anthem are a perfect example, so they even reap profits there.

Lying weasels.

[NJCher]

8. a contortionist with the numbers

Their spokesperson Zirkelbach says: For every dollar spent on health care in America, less than one penny goes toward health plan profits.

Umhmm. As my pops would say, "Figures don't lie, but liars do figure."


Cher

[Malikshah]

9. True, you should be vilified for crimes against the US population. I'll draw up the papers and get

the ax blades sharpened. You, the insurance companies, bring NOTHING to the table. Your reason for existence at this point is as a parasite on humanity. You do not belong in polite society and should be thankful that you are not hanging from some lamppost.

[ladywnch]

10. my heart bleeds purple panther piss for them! n/t

[Zoeisright]

11. They deserve to be vilified because they are fucking greedy murderers.

It's that simple.

[Arkana]

13. Yes, you absolutely do.

You screw millions of people every year out of adequate coverage and leave them to drown in a sea of medical bills so you can count more profits at the end of the year.

I can't think of a better target.

[Lord Helmet]

14. k 'n r

[harun]

15. They should be tried for crimes against humanity.

[old mark]

16. They are right...they deserve to be vilified for fraud and murdering millions of Americans

for profit by denying coverage for trumped up reasons.

They are even worse scum than Congress.

mark

[depakid]

17. If the leadership had done this persistently starting back in May and let them whine

There'd have been reasonable legislation that actually addressed the root problems by last July.

[PVnRT]

18. They're partly right

They shouldn't just be vilified for political purposes. They should be vilified for virtually everything they do.

[and-justice-for-all]

19. I agree....

the discussion should not have included the insurance industry and universal health care enacted with out any of their concerns.

They are a free enterprise industry, OUR government should have never listened to them at all.

[Cha]

20. The facts are being told and they call it "being villified"..

so be it.

The Health Care Bill is right on time..I don't care what the meme is now that it should have been done a year ago.

[HughMoran]

21. Vilified? They're right - they deserve a lot worse punishment than that for murdering people

They better shut the fuck up before we decide that the land they own is all of ours and they are a public service.

[Triana]

22. no they deserve to be vilified for profiting off of people's illness, death, and injury

and and for profiting off of what is NOT a luxury or 'want' but rather a basic human NEED.

It's far and beyond politics here. We're talking about a humanitarian and moral issue. NOT a political one. That's the whole damn problem.

[City Lights]

23. Dear Insurance Industry: FUCK OFF!

:nuke:

[4lbs]

24. Why don't they do a little truth in advertising: "Although we made billions upon billions of

dollars in profit the last few years, even though 15 to 25 percent fewer people are insured, we felt like increasing premiums 25 to 100 percent just for funsies."

[OneBlueSky]

25. the insurance industry contributes NOTHING to quality health care . . .

the whole industry is just a leech stuck in the system between providers and patients to suck out as much money as they possibly can . . . the system would be far more effective and cost-efficient without them . . .

[GaYellowDawg]

26. They DON'T deserve to be vilified for political purposes.

They deserve to be vilified because they're cold, ruthless, heartless, bastards who are perfectly happy with the idea of denying people medical care for immense profit.